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Clear to see reboot is bursting with creativity
Another week, another horror movie – but thankfully this one is actually good!
through Dark the mauling Mummy, iconic When critical monsters Universe the Universal of it seemed heart Tom and were of Cruise’s commercial put following the its put planned studio’s a stake back The in foreseeable Wisely, their coffins though, future. and the cages industry for the behemoth basics, concentrate decided on to standalone go back to flicks and give directors carte blanche to deliver their own take on its rogues gallery.
In the Dark Universe planning days, The Invisible Man was set to star Johnny Depp but we’re a long way from that here – and the
Claude Rains-led 1933 original.
Instead, writer-director Leigh
Whannell takes a more pure horror approach and frames the titular antagonist – The
Haunting of Hill House’s Oliver
Jackson-Cohen – as an abusive manipulator targeting his exgirlfriend, Elisabeth Moss’ Cecilia.
Whannell, who helped create the Saw and Insidious franchises, proves previous directorial effort
Upgrade was no fluke by giving us another surprising, fresh trip to the cinema.
The decision to make the
Invisible Man a more nasty conspirator pays off and it’s genuinely unsettling watching
Cecilia put through emotional and physical hell while disbelieving friends and medical professionals dismiss her as crazy. she Moss flips is between wonderful terrified here as and defeated and fiery and determined.
Although he’s not actually on screen very much, Jackson-Cohen is terrific too; he’s been a genre standout over the past 18 months. Whannell expertly builds the tension to a crescendo, aided and abetted by Benjamin Wallfisch’s skin-crawling score.
By scaling back its ambition and encouraging creativity, Universal may just have resurrected its monster mash plans.